[philwelch]

English used to have diacritical marks, specifically the diaereses, as can be seen in names like Zoë or in the surname Brontë (as in the family of English authors.)

The New Yorker loves the diaereses to this day, and frequently uses it in words like "coöperate".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaeresis_(diacritic)

[vacri]

I made the realisation when I went to Vietnam, where basically you right a sentence then shake a bagful of diacritics over it. I thought "Heh, English doesn't require any of that nonsense... hey... wait a minute..."